


You Again

by crowleyshouseplant



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Consent Issues, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Self-cest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-12
Updated: 2014-10-12
Packaged: 2018-02-20 21:56:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2444561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowleyshouseplant/pseuds/crowleyshouseplant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The woman Korra fought in the ring meets Korra after the match. The vision of Avatar Korra that has followed Korra's footsteps tags along.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Again

**Author's Note:**

> I found myself having trouble describing the consent issues that appear in this fic. The best way to put it is that the structure is very similar in what appears in the canon. Korra is fighting the woman in the ring, but she sees herself fighting Avatar Korra. Similarly, when the woman in the ring, whom I've named Wei for the purposes of this fic, meets with Korra after the match and they talk then later kiss, Korra sees herself doing these things with both Wei and Avatar Korra. I say there are consent issues as Wei is unaware that this is happening, and also because there is a lack of communication between Korra, Wei, and Avatar Korra.

The ring didn’t feel familiar like it once did. Korra knew that this wasn’t the first time she’d had her butt kicked in a fight—she remembered the first splashes she took in her early days of pro-bending, but this was different.

This wasn’t something warmly familiar. This was something cold, strange like the chill that settled between old friends who have been wedged apart or family that doesn’t understand. 

She shook herself, forcing her muscles to relax, trying to remember to control her breathing. Her opponent stretched luxuriously, her muscles flexing leisurely as she padded around the ring, greeting her fans with a smile and a wave. 

Her hair was tied up out of the way, and Korra tugged at hers, still not used to how short it was, knowing she had to cut it, but missing it all the same. 

She wondered if this time she’d just be fighting Wei in the ring or if she’d see the Avatar, haunting her every move, closer than any shadow. Korra steeled herself, crouching in a defensive stance.

Wei attacked quickly, hard, and earth jutted towards Korra’s solar plexus, and she sidestepped it, stepping, if only for a brief instant, into that time when she had twisted herself through those swinging wooden doors, when her feet had been more nimble—

She stumbled, tripping over a stone, and struggled to regain her balance.

Rock grazed her, and she fought the urge to clutch her arm, to look at the wound, as she lobbed earth at Wei. Was it bleeding, or would it just be a bruise in the morning?

She pushed back, and Wei smacked aside the chunks of earth like they were just pebbles. 

Beneath Korra’s heel, the earth shifted. She lost her balance, fell heavily to the ground, lungs seizing at the shock, struggling to breathe as her eyes blinked rapidly. For a moment, she couldn’t move, and had it happened again? 

She struggled to move, lashed out violently so earth erupted into jutting cliffs around her. 

Her bending had been taken away, once. Her body had been tied up in chains, attacked and poisoned, Zaheer stealing the air from her lungs but leaving her grievously injured, unable to move for such a long time—

She raised her eyes to find her opponent, but only found her, her again, found Avatar Korra with her long, unbound hair, her blazing eyes, her tattered blue clothes, chains wrapped around her wrist.

A scream ripped through her throat, and she pulled down boulders that Avatar Korra nimbly dodged, tornadoes of air drifting her out of reach, snatching her from Korra’s aim as she shot rocks at Korra that she wasn’t quick enough to dodge, that knocked her feet out from under her, that struck her ribs, that pushed her against the hard floor of the ring, scraping her elbows, her knees. 

She couldn’t get up during the countdown, and Wei was pronounced the victor, and when Korra struggled to open her eyes, she did see Wei, her arms raised in victory as she strutted around the ring, instead of Avatar Korra looming over her with her resolute, blazing-eyed stare.

Pressing her hand against the hurt in her gut, Korra stumbled to her feet, taking her meager winnings from a dissatisfied boss, and slipped out so that she could wipe the blood from her face, see how bad the damage had been. 

But Wei had already beaten her there (not that that was hard to do these days), not a cut or a bruise on her, lounging against the door, arms folded across her chest like she had nowhere else better to be.

"You look pretty bad," Wei said. 

Korra shrugged. “I’d look better if you let me through.”

But Wei didn’t move. “I don’t understand why you fight. You’re not good at it. And hey—I don’t mind the coin I earn pounding people in the ring, but you know, they can usually fight back.”

"I can fight back," Korra said. 

"Then why didn’t you?" Wei frowned, her lip twisting around her teeth. "I’m not a bully."

"I just want to clean up and go home," Korra said.

After a moment, Wei relented and stepped aside. Korra pushed through, shoulders brushing past Wei’s, and she rolled her eyes when she heard Wei follow her in. 

The water streamed, gentle and cold, from the faucet as Korra splashed her face, the dirt and blood washing away.

Wei watched from the shadows, again slouched in a corner. Korra looked for Avatar Korra, but she wasn’t there, and she closed her eyes for a moment, grateful for the moment of peace. 

"Sometimes I feel that you see someone else in the ring instead of me," Wei said. "I’m not surprised, though. A lot of people come into the ring for different reasons. Me? I just come in for a good fight." She slammed her fist against her palm.

"Fascinating," Korra said. She raised her shirt, twisting so she could see the mottled bruise sprawled against her ribs in the cracked mirror.

When Korra heard someone move, felt the presence of someone near her, she jerked her head up, half expecting to see Avatar Korra but it was just Wei.

"Why don’t you let me help with that?"

"…what?" They weren’t friends. She barely even knew her name, let alone why she was here, in this small, cramped room with her. 

Wei held out a tub of something—salve by the look of it. “It’s great for bruises and as you can see, I have little need of it for tonight.” She unscrewed the cap, and something medicinal and fresh hit Korra’s nose and she breathed it in deep, already starting to feel her mind clear a little bit.

"You don’t have to," Korra said, suddenly self conscious as her skin twitched against Wei’s probing fingers. 

"Well, I guess it’s a good thing I want to," Wei said. 

Korra bit her lips against the stinging pain as Wei applied the salve. 

"It’s nothing personal, you know," Wei said. "It’s just—"

"I know," Korra bit back, her words clipped and short.

Only after Wei had finishing attending the growing bruise, after she had put a bandage on it, after she had pulled the shirt down, did Korra say, “Thanks.” 

Korra looked beyond Wei’s head towards her own reflection in the mirror. There was no sign of Avatar Korra.

But Wei didn’t step back to lean against the far wall like she was all that, so cocky and confident. She stayed close to Korra, her breath warm and soft against her chin. Her finger looped stray hairs from Korra’s face, tucking them behind her ear. “You missed a spot,” she said, licking the pad of her thumb as she dragged it against Korra’s cheek.

Korra felt the dirt fall from her skin.

Wei pushed her then, not like she was starting a fight, but like she was guiding her, closer towards the wall, closer to the slant of street light and moonlight falling through a small window, a hand braced against the bottom of her skull, the other repositioning her in the light as she looked for more cuts, more bruises in need of attention.

Korra went along with it.

"Can’t see anything in that corner," Wei muttered.

Korra shrugged. 

Wei guided her against the wall, her own face a long shadow over Korra’s, the light glinting against her hair, her hands on Korra’s head, fingers through her hair, thumbs resting on the high rises of her cheekbones, breath falling in light, warm clouds against her face.

Korra tilted her mouth up for a kiss, and Wei obliged, gentle at first, then harder, pushing against her so that she was wedged against the wall and Wei’s hard body.

Korra closed her eyes as they kissed. 

What happened in the ring, she wondered as Wei moved towards her neck, and Korra let her head fall back, hard against the wall. Was there two people—Wei and Avatar Korra—or was there just Avatar Korra?

Wei lifted her head, her hand pushing back Korra’s hair that still fell into her eyes. Korra blinked at her and the air shifted, and it was Avatar Korra, her eyes blazing in the darkness like twin moons, her breath coming in cold pants, and she was where Wei used to be, pressed up close against her, hands bracing the wall along the sides of her head, and Korra can’t move.

They stared at each other, Korra rigid, muscles already regrouping from Wei’s attention—to fight, to flee—she didn’t know.

Everything else hadn’t worked, and Avatar Korra kicked her butt every time. She threw her to the ground, then came back to do the same thing over and over. 

Shaking a little, Korra’s hands snaked out, pulling Avatar Korra close, hands running through the tangled curls of her hair. 

She wondered if Avatar Korra ever closed her eyes as she found Avatar Korra’s lips, and pressed a kiss to them.

If fighting didn’t work—maybe this would work.

Avatar Korra remained very still, and Korra thought that this was probably a good sign. One hand ran from her skull down her spine, setting into the small of her back. 

She turned Avatar Korra’s head to the side so that she would not have to gaze into those eyes, those unceasing, accusing eyes. She kissed the slope of her neck, noticing for the first time the scars there, old wounds that had healed badly. She kissed each one before she took Avatar Korra’s hand, and unwrapped the chain, link by link clattering at their feet, until it was gone, and Korra saw how it had rubbed the skin raw, chafing it to red soreness, and she kissed that too.

But when Korra lifted her head again to kiss those blazing eyes, to coax them to close, to sleep, with small kisses on her brows, her lids, because everything was going to be fine now, she wasn’t in danger (Katara had said so) and the Air Nation was back and nobody needed the Avatar anymore—not Korra certainly—

Avatar Korra pushed back hard, against Korra, and her head snapped into the rock, and she blinked her eyes to clear her vision, and she saw Wei again instead of Avatar Korra. 

"I’m sorry," she said. "I’m not sure what happened."

"Nothing. It doesn’t matter." 

There was space between them now, and awkwardness settled in. Korra looked studiously at bits of rock at their feet. 

"You could come home with me," Wei said.

Korra thought this was probably the first time she had sounded hesitant. “I can’t,” she said. “I’ve got my own place.”

"Okay," Wei said. She walked away, though she turned around once before leaving. "See you in the ring."

Korra nodded, but she knew that it wouldn’t be Wei she saw.

Her whole body hurt.

Her whole heart hurt.

She slid down the wall until she sat on the floor, thighs brought close against her belly, head bowed between her knees until someone pounded on the door, demanding what was taking so long.


End file.
